In the nine days the state spent laying out its second-degree-murder case against George Zimmerman at his trial, prosecutors questioned 36 witnesses and submitted 200 items of evidence.

Though it's unclear whether Zimmerman will testify, jurors have already seen and heard from him in audio and videotaped interviews he made in the days and months after he shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Prosecutors contend those statements will help prove his guilt.

The defense began presenting its case Friday shortly after the state rested. Here are some of the highlights of the prosecution's case:

The investigation

A half-dozen police officers testified. Two Sanford officers stood out: lead investigator Chris Serino and Tim Smith, the first officer on the scene.

Both described Zimmerman as cooperative and compliant.

The state got one of its biggest boosts of the trial Tuesday when Serino testified that two of Zimmerman's words to a dispatcher moments before the shooting — "[expletive] punks" — showed that he had ill will toward Trayvon.

That is one of the key elements that prosecutors must prove for a second-degree-murder conviction: that the defendant acted with a depraved mind, hatred, evil intent or ill will.

Serino testified that he doubted some details of Zimmerman's account but that he could find no solid evidence to dispute it. Zimmerman gave four recorded statements to police, including a video walk-through the day after the shooting.

Smith arrived within moments of the shooting, handcuffed Zimmerman and seized his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, which he had placed back in a waist holster.

Smith testified that the back of Zimmerman's jacket and pants was wet, and the back of his jacket had grass clippings on it. He also saw blood coming from Zimmerman's nose and from cuts to the back of his head.

"He stated to me that he was yelling for help but nobody came to help him," Smith said.

Profiling?

At the heart of the state's theory is that Zimmerman, a wannabe cop, profiled Trayvon as a criminal. Prosecutors sought to prove that by digging into Zimmerman's past.

Jurors heard that he applied to be a policeman in Prince William County, Va., in 2009. They heard he took a ride-along with Sanford police and was studying criminal justice.

They also heard five recorded phone calls Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer, had made to police in the months leading up to the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting.

In four of those calls, he was reporting suspicious persons in his neighborhood. Each time, the person was black. The calls were similar tothe one Zimmerman placed to report Trayvon the night of the shooting. But the tone was different.

In an August 2011 call, he said suspicious people "typically run away quickly." In the Trayvon call, he added profanity: "These assholes, they always get away."

In another pre-shooting call, Zimmerman uses the word "gentleman" to describe someone he found suspicious. In the Trayvon call: "[Expletive] punks."

Prosecutors say it all adds up to a man with a gun who had become increasingly frustrated and decided to take the law into his own hands.

Friend on phone with Trayvon

Rachel Jeantel was the most-awaited witness of the trial. She was Trayvon's friend and had been on the phone with him moments before the shooting.

Her behavior on the stand was unforgettable.

Trayvon told her he was being followed by a "creepy-ass cracker," she said. He told her he had lost the man, but the man reappeared, so Trayvon asked why he was following him.

She said the man responded with, "What are you doing around here?"

Then there was a bump, "like something hitting somebody," she said. Then she heard "grass sounds" and Trayvon say, "Get off. Get off," then the phone went dead.

But her words were sometimes overshadowed by demeanor. She used slang, made faces, was defiant at times and talked so fast, so softly and so indistinctly that it was often difficult to make out her words. Upon further questioning, Jeantel said English was her third language.

While on the stand, she admitted she had twice lied: once when she told Trayvon's mother that she was 16 — she was 18 — and a second time during a sworn statement when she said she had missed Trayvon's wake and funeral because she was in the hospital.

In the end, she withstood a punishing 51/2-hour cross-examination by defense attorney Don West with most of her story intact.

Neighbor witnesses

The state called seven neighbor witnesses. All of them heard the fight, but few saw it, and no one saw how it started.

John Good, who was closest to the fight, testified that he saw a dark-skinned male in a black shirt or jacket on top of someone with lighter skin who was dressed in red or white. (Trayvon had on a dark-gray hoodie and Zimmerman a red jacket.)

The one on top was on his knees, Good said, straddling the person on the bottom and either punching or pushing down. Good described it as doing the "ground and pound."

One of them called for help.

"It sounded like it was coming from the person on the bottom," Good said.

Jayne Surdyka saw the fight through her upstairs window: "I heard loud voices." One was dominant, "very aggressive … very angry," she said. A second was "lighter, softer, higher-pitched."

She saw two people on the ground wrestling, one on top of the other, the one on the bottom facedown, she said. She heard a "yelp," a cry for help, then three gunshots. (There was only one.)

She then saw a figure in black clothing stand up and begin to walk. (Trayvon, fatally wounded on the ground, was wearing black, and Zimmerman was wearing red.)

Medical testimony

In statement after statement to police after the shooting, Zimmerman described the brutal attack he said preceded it. During the state's case, prosecutors tried to convince jurors that account was exaggerated at best.

Earlier, jurors heard from the physician assistant who saw Zimmerman the day after the shooting. Lindzee Folgate of Altamonte Family Practice said the cuts to the back of Zimmerman's head measured 2 centimeters and 0.5 centimeters, and neither needed stitches.

Of Zimmerman's nose, Folgate said no X-rays were taken: "I would say likely broken; it's hard to say definitively."

Time and again, witnesses called by the state to help win a conviction wound up giving the defense a boost. The most noteworthy:

John Good: The neighbor who said he saw Trayvon on top of Zimmerman during the fight and thinks the cries for help came from the defendant.

Capt. Alexis Carter Jr.: Zimmerman's former teacher at Seminole State College, who told jurors that in Florida you can pick a fight, and if the other person overreacts and becomes violent, you have the right to kill him, provided you feared he was about to kill or gravely injure you.

Officer Tim Smith: The first officer on the scene, who said Zimmerman was bloody, had grass on the back of his jacket and said he'd been calling for help from neighbors but got none.

Chris Serino: The case's lead detective, who told jurors that in four recorded interviews, some of the details of Zimmerman's story varied but not on major points and that other evidence corroborated his account.

Lindzee Folgate: Zimmerman's physician assistant who testified that if Zimmerman had not stopped the fight, he might have been killed.

Wendy Dorival: The Sanford Police Department employee who helped Zimmerman's homeowners association set up a Neighborhood Watch program and testified that his neighbors told her they were concerned about a series of burglaries.